After a wonderful Thanksgiving at two locations (my ladies and mine), there was no better way to celebrate other than viewing an NC State vs. UNC football game as NC State (as the underdog) worked their way into an amazing winning game! With minutes left in the final quarter, NC State brought the winning touchdown home that coincidently brought an amazing win for the Wolf Pack!

So after a fantastic couple of meals with my fiancées family and mine, we managed to catch the game of the year (it seems) with two rival teams that will most likely not have a game this close for a long while.

What an amazing way to finish Thanksgiving! Go Wolfpack! Now let’s see what we can do in basketball!

It’s been slow this year selling Christmas trees. It’s very obvious that people just aren’t nearly as loose with their earnings as they have been in previous years.

It’s all good and still a lot of fun, but I haven’t had time for much else other than selling lately.

It’s funny to see the different types of buyers. Just to stereotype a little (hopefully in a non-offensive way…my apologies in advanced), here are the different things that I noticed:

Men, when shopping for a tree alone, tend to spot all of the trees in the height range they are looking for as they walk in. After looking over a select few, they narrow down to the best all in a matter of 3-5 minutes.

When families shop (parent(s) and child(ren)), the husband tends to stand back and approve or disapprove the children’s pick while trusting or accepting the wife’s pick. The wife is usually mingling in the trees with the children and looking along with them. The husband handles the payment process always unless he prefers to load the tree himself, where his wife pays. Usually takes 20-30 minutes.

Couples choose a tree similarly to families, with the male approving of the wives pick and not so much just going along with anything. Basically he has more input and always handles the payment. Usually takes 5-10 minutes.

Just women or mothers and their children seem to take much longer, inspect every tree multiple times, decide on one then change their mind and go with the second pick (happens about 50 percent of the time). Usually takes ~20 minutes.

Then there is that rare retired couple who come through and want to help by purchasing any Charlie Brown trees. They are usually the most genuinely kind customers and usually take 3-5 minutes.

That’s a pretty brief set of descriptions of the Christmas tree shoppers I see. It’s fun to watch, but they are very predictable. Sales are also pretty predictable. You usually know before you say “Hello” whether or not they will buy a tree from you or if they will want to “shop around a little more” or “check with their wife or husband before they purchase and then come back.”

Like I said before though, it’s all fun. Especially seeing the children light up when they get to pick the tree. They love it so much. It’s really cool. 😉

What does that number mean to you? It means absolutely nothing to me, but it’s always fun to take notice on days like these (that really aren’t anymore unique than 04-13-08 or 07-05-08).

So I guess many of you already know that the Olympics started today. Something about the number 8 being very special in China. I haven’t taken the time to look it up (cause I’m a little tired and lazy right now, haha), but I may look it up later and post some more about why it is special…or if any of you feel like posting something then just throw it in the comments!

Obviously the fact that the number for the day, month and year is cool…but it’s cheating at the same time cause the year is not really 8….add 2000 to that and you’ve got your year…it’s just an abbreviated year of course…but I still don’t see how it’s so special since it’s not even the full year like the day and month are. Anyways, just rambling.

On this “very special day” I am most likely not going to see any clips from the Olympics, but instead just relax…take in some mountain air and maybe waste a little time on the web.

Just got my Nalgene bottle that I got off eBay a week ago or so. I got the sipper from an outdoors shop in Raleigh (can’t remember the name of it at the moment), but it’s not the Nalgene brand sipper. You can find these sippers, called SplashGaurds, at http://www.guyotdesigns.com/splashguard and they are the best ones I’ve seen or used before.

Nalgene with SplashGuard

I would recommend finding a local shop to buy one from though if you decide you want one, cause the shipping on their website was going to cost me like ~$12-13 for a $3 item…just crazy.

I “had” to get a new bottle since my Eddie Bauer bottle got a crack in the lid. The sipper plus this cooler bottle makes the investment well worth it, haha.

Also..it may be hard to tell from the picture to the left, but there are actually two different sipper style built into this sweet thing.

There is the one shown to the left with the stream of water coming out..which is good for sipping from when you’re jogging or biking or something and then the one at the top (where you see a little lip sticking out). It’s pictured better in the image at the top of the post.

Very good design though! I love this bottle and I’ve had it for like a hour and a half now, haha. 08-08-08 has been a good day so far. 😀 Hope yours is great as well.

Happy Independence Day! I hope everyone made plans to celebrate! I’ll be celebrating in my home town..maybe with my family.

I hope to hear some awesome stories about everyone’s 4th experience this year, haha. Don’t get too hungover though…where ever you are, you best be celebrating my birthday on the 5th! Big Two-Two, haha. I’m going to be “old” in less than 24 hours. You know…21 is great…after that it’s all down hill, lol.

Well, off to sleep to prepare for my favorite holiday of the year! Oh and the watermelon is an essential piece of the fun…so everyone indulge in as much watermelon as you can! Maybe popcorn too, but be responsible. Don’t eat and drink.

Well, I’m back at home for Christmas Break and have found myself on a corrected sleeping schedule. I’ve been up everyday by 6 am so far since Wednesday morning. It’s amazing! I was up this morning at 5:30 am, but the bad thing is that I’ve been crashing at night around 9:30 or 10.

Well, since I’ve been home I’ve gotten just a little of my shopping done and even done some odds and ends that I’d been needing to do for a while now. It’s good to have some time off to catchup on things that you’ve been wanting or needing to do for a while. It’s just too bad that I’ll be rushed at getting all of the Holiday gifts for friends and family.